New Zealand held a general election on Saturday, November 7, and two days later the result is still not fully settled, because the country's top two parties finished close enough that the preliminary count puts them within a fraction of a point of each other.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had set the election date earlier this year. New Zealand uses a proportional voting system known as MMP, or mixed member proportional representation, in which the share of the national party vote largely determines how many seats each party gets in Parliament, and in which smaller parties frequently end up holding real leverage over who governs. That system tends to produce coalition governments rather than single party majorities, and it rewards parties that can credibly promise to work with others after election day.
Preliminary results released on election night showed the two largest parties separated by only about a tenth of a percentage point of the national vote, an outcome close enough that it will likely take the official count, plus special votes cast by people overseas or outside their home electorate, to determine which coalition arrangement can actually command a majority in Parliament. New Zealand's official results typically take a couple of weeks to finalize after preliminary counting because special votes are counted separately and can shift seat allocations.
Because of how tightly contested the top of the field is, smaller parties that cleared the threshold for representation are likely to play an outsized role in deciding which bloc ultimately forms the next government, a dynamic New Zealand voters have seen before under MMP.
The official count, including special votes, will determine the final seat allocation and therefore which parties have the numbers to form a coalition.
Why isn't there a declared winner yet?
New Zealand's official count, which includes special votes cast overseas or outside a voter's home area, is finalized after election night and can shift which parties have enough seats to form a government.
What is MMP?
Mixed member proportional representation is New Zealand's voting system, in which a party's share of the national vote largely determines its share of seats in Parliament.